Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – September 2018

Travis thinks he can just start these posts and I’ll put up with it, but I shan’t! So let’s get going with it, as Previews #360 is loose in the world, and we’re going to check it out. As usual, Travis will be in black, and I’m in blue. We were on time for one month before regressing last time, so will we be timely again? The world holds its breath!

Bitter Root #1 on page 40 sounds like a generic monster story, but it’s set during the Harlem Renaissance and it’s written by David F. Walker and drawn by Sanford Greene, so that might make it worth a look.

Yeah, hopefully the monster stuff won’t be the big thing, but the relationships and the setting will be instead.

John Layman’s new book with Afu Chan, Outer Darkness, is on page 44. It’s outer space horror, which is never a bad thing. To show you how long it takes to get a comic to market, Layman showed me pages of this … I want to say about a year ago, and it’s just now coming out. It seems like a pretty keen series, too.

Wowie. Yeah, it sounds pretty cool. So I’ll be getting the trade.

You might want to fly out of that thing’s mouth, though

Keith Giffen is writing (but not drawing) Auntie Agatha’s Home for Wayward Rabbits on page 48. Apparently it’s exactly what it says – a businessman is threatening to shut down the home, and the niece of the titular character has to stop him. Sounds … odd?

Since it is a mini, I’ll just wait for the trade. OMG, if Giff was drawing something again that he wrote!

On page 50 we’ve got The Terrible Elisabeth Dumn Against the Devils in Suits, a one shot about a woman whose father promised her to the devil. I keep forgetting not to do that! Art looks decent and James Robinson is translating it.

Yeah, that looks pretty good. Those wacky Brazilians!

She should probably get that looked at

There’s a complete “Compugdium” of Battlepug by Mike Norton on page 57. I was always interested in the book but never got it, but now the five volumes are all in one place, and I might get this version!

For some reason, this never interested me. It’s nice that it’s all in one place, though.

On page 58, the first volume of Crude shows up. It’s about a bad-ass Russian doing bad-ass stuff. You know, like they do.

Also on page 58 is 24 Panels, a book to benefit victims of the Grenfell Tower fire that’s curated by Kieron Gillen and includes a story by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, among others. I’ll probably get this.

That’s probably worth a look.

The first volume of Outpost Zero on page 60 seems to give away the concept of the series. Is it about people inside a snow globe? Is that why it’s the smallest town in the universe? I mean, I guess I can get behind that concept, but it seems strange to give it away on the cover. Anyway, this is 15 dollars for 4 issues, so it’s slightly less than cover price, but that’s still a slim trade.

I missed that. That makes sense, but yeah, it seems odd to give it away like that. Someone liked the finale of St. Elsewhere!

Sunstone is back on page 63. The first five volumes were quite good, so get them all and read them all at once!

I did dig the first couple that I read, and I own the rest. Got to dig them all out.

William Gibson apparently wrote a screenplay for Alien 3, and now Dark Horse is illustrating it on page 96. I think Alien3 is a wildly underrated movie, and while this is sufficiently different, it seems, I still think it will be keen to read.

Johnnie Christmas is a good artist, so this should be a neat trade.

The latest Neil Gaiman collection, The Problem of Susan on page 103, apparently includes “October in the Chair”, which is a wonderful Ray Bradbury influenced story.

I dig these Gaiman books that Dark Horse puts out, so I’ll probably get this, too.

P. Craig Russell is so good, yo

On page 112 is the trade of Modern Fantasy, the book with a D&D/The Office feel to it, written by Rafer Roberts and drawn by Henchgirl’s Kristen Gudsnuk. I was waiting for this!

Page 116 has a trade of Ethan Young’s Nanjing: The Burning City, if you didn’t get it in HC.

But I did! Oh, you mean the readers. Come on, Travis, like anybody reads this!

Actually, this time I did mean you and not the readers! Boy is my face red!

I know you liked the cover of Wandering Island volume 1 because of the bikini-clad girl on it, and now, in volume 2 (page 126), we see even more skin!

It sounds nothing like the premise of Electric Warrior, at least from what I remember of it, so I don’t know why they used the name.

At least they’re not doing the electric slide!

I guess the big news this month is that Grant “I get a boner whenever I attach the prefix ‘multi-‘ to anything” Morrison is back writing for the DCU with The Green Lantern on page 10. I’m getting this, of course, as Morrison is still my favorite writer, but I’m not sure if I’m getting the singles or not.

Same here. If they’re all 5 dollar singles, I may wait.

DC launches yet another Captain Marvel book on page 12, with Geoff “the first decapitation is on page 4!” Johns and Dale Eaglesham. This might be fun, although I’m not sure what that funny word is that makes up the book’s real title. I mean, there’s Captain Marvel sitting there on the cover!

I assume some comics creators have children, yet when they draw schools, they look nothing like schools today, but how they looked 30-40 years ago. Come on, comics creators!

The latest Batman and The Shadow team-up gets a trade on page 68. Riley Rossmo’s art looked very nice on this, so I’ll pick this up.

Actually, that wasn’t the latest, as Dynamite did another one that I don’t believe has been collected yet. But this looks cool.

Oh. Well, aren’t you just up to date on your comics news!

I thought we mentioned the Dynamite one back when that was first offered! All 6 issues have been solicited, I believe.

Cave Carson Has an Interstellar Eye gets a trade on page 68 as well. This was a fun comic, and it’s too bad Young Animal didn’t do better, because it had some pretty keen titles.

Well, on page 29 is the last Young Animal book, Doom Patrol 12. Maybe it will actually come out!

Goldfish (page 73) and Jinx (page 77) are two old Bendis books from Image (and drawn by Bendis!) offered in new editions, and they’re both worth getting. Jinx is better, but they’re both good, and they show why Bendis got such a good reputation before he went to Marvel. If only that guy shows up on his new DC titles …

I’m hearing that he’s doing well with Superman but from the DC Nation 0 story I wasn’t all that impressed. But hey, the start of his X-Men run a few years back was pretty good, actually. Other than the stupid “it’s Bobby’s fault for suggesting we go back in time even though Hank actually got the original five” stuff. As to Goldfish and Jinx, I believe they were both at Caliber before Image.

Hmmm. I knew he did work for Caliber, but I didn’t know those were published there. My bad.

One way that DC does not need to copy Marvel is in numbering their trades by creative teams, as that leads to unnecessary confusion. On page 79, Nightwing volume “1” is offered, even though it’s just the beginning of Benjamin Percy writing the title. At least Marvel, as stupid as it is, usually begins a new creative team with a new #1, but DC didn’t even do that, as issues #44-48 are collected here. This isn’t volume one, DC!!!!!!

Yeah, at least include “by so and so” in there. They do it with Harley Quinn on page 75 too.

Apparently Marvel can’t do kids books without IDW helping, as there’s an all ages version of Spider-Man on page 134. Ay yi yi!

On page 146 is a Leonardo one shot of TMNT, written and drawn by the great Sophie Campbell.

Dang. I literally never look at the licensed stuff that IDW publishes, because so much of it doesn’t interest me, but I’ll probably get this. Thanks, Mr. Travis!

That’s why the two of us are needed for this column! I know there was something in the last couple months that I saw after we published that you would have liked but I can’t remember what it was now!

That’s a nice David Petersen cover, too

There’s a new Atomic Robo series on page 149 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the character. Why don’t you read Atomic Robo comics? Don’t you like good entertainment?

I do read some, and I have those big collections they put out a while ago, but I’m so far behind on reading stuff. Although I did just pull out some trades I haven’t read of stuff and have a pile of stuff to read! Eventually I’ll read my stuff!

On page 153 is Go-Bots 1 from Tom Scioli. No surprise, because his wacky Transformers and GI Joe book used Gobot as an insult. This should be a fun trade down the road.

Yeah, I saw that and then forgot to mention it. Scioli is awesome!

I’ll wait for the trade of Sukeban Turbo (page 162), because it sounds fairly generic – a girl gang rules the streets of Brooklyn – but it’s drawn by Victor Santos, who’s enough to get me to check it out!

Same here on trade waiting. If someone missed his Polar series, the first volume of that has a second edition from Dark Horse on page 116, along with offering the second and third books again. Actually, I just read Violent Love v1 and the bio for Santos mentions this comic, so apparently it’s an international comic that’s being published here in the US now by IDW.

It’s new to me!

Man, things get rough sometimes out on the golf course!

On page 163 is Jingle Belle: The Homemades’ Tale, a new one shot of the fun Paul Dini book about Santa’s rebellious daughter.

Well, I’ll wait for the trade because our pal Kelly is one of the writers, but I haven’t really been into the Uncanny X-Men for years. But here are the first 3 weeks of the new weekly book on page 2.

I wasn’t going to mention anything about this, because I also haven’t been into the X-Universe in years and I too was probably going to at least check out the trade of this, but the cover is bugging me. How much input do the writers have in making this team? Are the characters on the cover the ones on the team, or is this just one of those generic “let’s put everyone on the cover and have them look menacing” things? If these writers were more powerful (none of them have written for Marvel for that long, and none have a top seller to their names), could they pick their own team? I’m just wondering these things because the cover that appears to be the main one features a stinky team, to be honest. No one gives a shit about Bishop. Nightcrawler … yeah, maybe. I always love Psylocke, and teams need a telepath, so sure, why not. Storm and Jean Grey have become boring over the years, and Jean didn’t have far to go, so while I can deal with Ororo, Jean sucks. Nobody gives a shit about X-23. I love Jubilee, and maybe they can do something with her, but she hasn’t been served well over the years. Beast, Cannonball, and Iceman all suck. So that’s 10 characters on the cover, and three-and-a-half who are all right (Kurt is the half). You can’t tell me if you had writers sit down and pick their dream X-team that they’d have Bishop, Iceman, and Cannonball on it. No one would!!!! Not Paige Guthrie, Not Opal Tanaka, not Shard, not Claremont, not Stan Lee, not John Byrne and Whilce Portacio. So how did they come up with this shitty team?

(Just ignore all this if this isn’t the real team but just Leinil Francis Yu throwing random mutants into a pose just so they look cool. Then it’s stupid, but understandable.)

(Okay, rant over. Move along, people!)

I suspect you’re wrong about a bunch of those characters, and I think all of them are liked by these writers. I know, weird, right?

Yeah, I just assume I’m wrong about a lot of things, but this still bugs me.

Plus, it’s just a lousy drawing, unfortunately

I did find the Spider-Man/Deadpool solicit on page 52 amusing, with its references to On The Road and Tommy Boy.

I have neither read nor seen them, so that solicit sucks. So I decree!!!!!

Whoo-hoo!!! Savage Sword of Conan OMNIBUS on page 97!!!! One hundred dollars, 1072 pages of Cimmerian Mayhem! I don’t care about the price tag, I am so down for this!!!!

He’s trying to listen for the lamentations of the women!

I’m very tempted to get Old Man Logan volume 9 on page 113, just because Juan Ferreyra drew a couple of issues. Man, they were sweet-looking issues.

If you’ve never read Peter David’s X-Factor, Marvel has a nice Epic Collection on page 126. I don’t love quite as much as a lot of people, but it’s pretty good. It’s certainly entertaining!

On page 140, Marvel has the four trades of Miracleman they’ve managed to put out. Does this mean …??????

What page? I see it in the main book. But yeah, I believe there was an announcement at San Diego about it. Ask Tom! I’ll believe it when it actually happens!

Smooth Criminals on page 210 sounds amusing, with a computer hacker finding a frozen ’60s cat burglar. I’ll probably get the first of most likely 3 trades in a while.

Yeah, that sounds fun. Wacky, but fun.

That’s a cool Audrey Mok cover

Did you ever read Iron: Or The War After by S.M. Vidaurri? It’s offered in SC on page 224 (after several years, I think).

Yes, I did. It was pretty good, from what I recall. Beautiful, moody artwork. Weird that it took so long to get a softcover version out!

Back of the book!

Aardvark-Vanaheim corrects a typo 41 years in the making, according to the press release, with Cerberus in Hell? 1 on page 244, the latest Cerebus in Hell? one shot homaging the original Cerebus 1.

I don’t know anything about the creators of Twelve Devils Dancing on page 249 from Action Lab, but I love stuff like this: a retired FBI agent finds out the great serial killer he stopped years before wasn’t really the killer, and now the killer is back!!!!! So I might check this out.

Page 253 has the first trade of A Walk Through Hell, from Aftershock, the latest Ennis book that sounded to me a bit like Beardy’s Neonomicon.

Yeah, but I’ll still check out the trade. And I would get Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajic’s graphic novel, Witch Hammer, on page 252, but it’s 20 dollars for 64 pages. No thanks!

Albatross Funnybooks has Grumble 1 of 5 on page 264, a book by Rafer Roberts and Mike Norton about a grifter turned into a pug dog trying to avoid agents of good and evil. I’ll probably get the singles because I don’t know if this will go into trade quickly. And I like the creative team.

American Mythology has, on page 268, Drive-In Frights TP 1, which features Volcanosaurus, Meteor Swarm, Mike Wolfer’s Crypt of Screams, and Dark Tales of the Vokesverse all in one volume. They sounded neat, so I’m considering this one since I didn’t get any of the singles.

On page 286, A Wave Blue World has a couple of neat books. This Nightmare Kills Fascists is a horrors of the modern world anthology, while Kismet, Man of Fate is a story of the first Muslim superhero, who disappeared during WWII and has come back to the modern world to deal with similar evils. From something I saw elsewhere, I think this might be a public domain character actually from the Golden Age.

Yeah, I’m getting both of these. Tyler is a good guy, and he always manages to put out entertaining comics, so the anthology will probably be keen. And Kismet is written by A. David Lewis, who writes very few comics but they’re always good, and Noel Tuazon is one of the artists (I don’t know how much he does), and Tuazon is also someone who doesn’t do much but is very good, so I’m sure it will be worth the look.

Ah, yes, I forgot that A Wave Blue World gets you review copies and stuff.

Well, I doubt I’ll get this one, but I’ll still order it!

Black Mask has a couple of interesting ones on pages 288 and 289. We Are The Danger TP 1 is about two teen girls forming a band, while Come Into Me is about technology allowing people to share a body, and it’s drawn by Piotr Kowalski, who I like from what I’ve seen.

The first one doesn’t really interest me, but Come Into Me sounds neat. Kowalski is a good artist, and the writers did The Dregs, one of the best mini-series from last year, so I’m looking forward to this one.

On page 302 Sink returns from ComixTribe with issue 6. I got the email about this recently, but you know I’m so far behind on everything!

That’s cool. I was hoping it would be back!

The final volume of Silver shows up on the same page from Dark Planet. Pick up all four volumes and enjoy a heist comic with vampires!

I was hoping they’d resolicit them all, but I guess I missed my chance! I’ll eventually get them.

Fantagraphics has a biography about James Warren, Empire of Monsters on page 314, about the dude who published all those cool magazines in the ’60s and ’70s, including Vampirella.

There’s also Doctor of Horror and Other Stories, a collection of Graham Ingels’s EC stuff. These collections that Fantagraphics puts out are so damned cool, man.

So much cool stuff!

Interestingly, Hedley Lamarr (ahem) is featured in two books this month. GT Labs reoffers Dignifying Science: Women Scientists on page 318, and Humanoids has a whole bio of her on page 326. OK, I know it’s Hedy.

Tom Hart has The Art of the Graphic Memoir on page 322 from Griffin Books. It’s an instructional guide from someone who does great comics. Also, my lady might be interested in this, as it’s a field of interest for her.

Heavy Metal has been terrible at getting their books to my hands (whether it’s just me or them I don’t know), but Taarna on page 323 sounds neat. Alex de Campi is a fine writer, and while the artist listed (Esau Escorzi) is different than the artist mentioned in the solicits (Stephane Roux, who’s quite good), this might be worth a look.

It’s probably Heavy Metal. They’ve been really slow and stuff they’ve solicited over and over keeps not showing up. I won’t even mention the book GMozz did that Gerhard of Cerebus fame drew!

Such wise clothing for a warrior!

Hermes Press has a HC of the Phantom: President Kennedy’s Mission on page 323. The title sounds fun.

I like how they don’t tell us the creative team, though. Come on, Hermes! But you’re right, this does sound fun.

It does say in the body of the solicit that it’s written by Ron Goulart and drawn by Sean Joyce and Sinclair Klugarsh. KLUGARSH!

What? They expect me to read the solicitation? Sheesh. There are some things up with which I will not put!

Humanoids also has Vietnamese Memories book 2 on page 327, which is about Vietnamese women forced to create new lives in the U.S. after the war. I have the first volume but haven’t read it yet (it’s staring accusingly at me from my “to read” pile next to my computer), but the art is lovely, so I’m sure this will be nice, too.

It’s Alive, from Drew Ford, is featured on page 328 with a new Combat one shot, called Dunkirk, and featuring artwork by Sam Glanzman. Should be cool.

On page 357, Rebellion/2000AD has Hope, which is basically John Constantine in an alternate universe 1940s Los Angeles. Mallory Hope (isn’t Mallory generally a female name?) is a private detective looking for a lost child in a world where magic use is common. It sounds keen, and Jimmy Broxton is drawing it, so it will probably look keen.

I believe this is collected from 2000AD, and I have seen a chapter or two of this, and it did look good.

Dude, always check behind you!

SelfMadeHero has a new book by David Hine and Mark Stafford, Lip Hook: A Tale of Rural Unease, on page 360, and it sounds nicely creepy.

Damn, I’m totally getting that. Hine and Stafford make some incredibly creepy comics together, and this one sounds really good.

Well, I’m uneasy

Titan gives us Monster by Enki Bilal on page 373, which, granted, is 50 dollars, but it’s also 260+ pages, and it’s frickin’ Enki Bilal, so really, you have no excuse for not dropping the ducats on this.

OK, I’m not sure, on page 376, is Tank Girl Color Classics v1: ’88-’90 HC collecting the two trades they put out recently? If so I may need to get this.

That’s a fine question, young Travis. It seems like it should be, but I can’t say. The trades have been short and this seems long, so I would think it is, but I cannot confirm!

Deep Roots on page 389 from Vault Comics sounds interesting. It’s about plants becoming somewhat sentient and taking revenge against the humans, and the humans trying to survive. I don’t know the artist, Val Rodrigues, but writer Dan Watters has written some good stuff in the past, so I’ll probably pick this up.

I’m interested, but I’m a little annoyed at Vault, because from what I’ve seen, the Fail Safe book that they started publishing stopped with issue 3, which was exactly as far as DC got with it before they cancelled it under the title Insurgent. ARGH!

But you never actually read comics, so what do you care?

Harsh, but true. Actually, I’ve been catching up with a bunch of trades lately. So…go me?

Kodansha Comics has, on page 428, the complete series box set of Battle Angel Alita, a classic manga now in movie form. It’s a pricey set but it’s probably pretty cool.

That’s all for this month, folks. Have a nice day, and enjoy your journey through Previews as you pre-order your little hearts out!

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Author: Greg Burgas

Greg is a person of strange passions and mystery. He likes nothing more than sitting down to eat a good marble omelet while listening to Metal Machine Music on 78 rpm. He has worked as a shepherd, a pirate, and president of Andorra, but his most rewarding experience in life was inventing bacon. He lives on an island in Lake Chad, where he raises attack slugs and writes best-selling novels in Tagalog.

19 Comments

However, “…it’s frickin’ Enki Bilal, so really, you have no excuse for not dropping the ducats on this.” I don’t know, man. After reading the beautifully drawn mess that was the Nikopol Trilogy, I’m extremely cautious about picking up anything by Bilal in which he does the writing as well as drawing.

On the other hand, I’m extremely interested in both A Walk Through Hell and Witch Hammer – granted, it’s because I’m acquainted with both of the artists (Sudzuka and Talajic), but still, they sound pretty cool (although yeah, the latter does sound spendy given the length).

I hope to Christ that Hermes cleaned up that Phantom book. I only got issue #1 and it was so badly printed and so full of typos that it honestly put me off the whole book. I’ve seen photocopy zines that looked better. It especially stung because I was very excited about it happening at all, I’m a big Ron Goulart fan. In fact, come to think of it, my very first Phantom story I ever read was one of Goulart’s… The Island of Dogs, one of the Avon novels. Should be coming up for reprint in a year or so, also from Hermes.

Honestly, I am kind of surprised it’s finished. I never saw any more of the singles after #1. And that was some months before I gave up singles entirely. The Peter David one took forever too.

EDIT: I just checked their website. They were taking pre-orders for #2 but it hasn’t actually appeared yet. I suspect the Previews listing for the collected edition is wishful thinking on someone’s part.

You hadn’t heard about that? It was fairly well known, way back and the script used to be sold online and at conventions, for years. He started out with Hicks and Ripley dropping Newt off with her grandparents and went from there. As I recall, fans seemed to like it and it was respectful to the two previous films.

Bendis was published at Caliber for Fire, AKA Goldfish and the early Jinx; then moved Jinx to Image, where they reprinted Goldfish and Fire. Bendis on crime fiction=great; Bendis on superheroes=…..well, your mileage may vary (I like some, though Powers far above any of his Marvel stuff).

Oh, Joy; Heavy Metal is rehashing a character that was born because Moebius wouldn’t let them use his characters. Yeah, I think I’ll pass on that. Some more Harry Canyon (same origin); yeah, I’d be down for that, as long as Juan Giminez was the artist.

Sam Glanzman’s Combat stuff, for Dell, was fantastic; really well researched and illustrated. Add that to the Kickstarter drive for Lonely War of Willz Schultz and the Hercules book. Maybe someone can light a fire under Roger Broughton for the Thief of Sherwood stuff.

I never thought it would be possible for such a lame, rip off character, but Tom Taylor has done such great work with X 23 that he’s made me care about that character. His X Men Red is the first X Men I’ve read since giving Bendis’s a shot and it’s pretty good and X 23 is in there. Tom Taylor is a good writer is what I’m saying (especially his underwater family adventures The Deep).

Corrin: Taylor is a good writer, and that’s good to know about his work with X-23. I’ll definitely get the trade of this X-Men event, so I’ll have to see if the writers do good work with her (as I assume she’ll be there).

IDW, 2018: What is Marvel anyway? They’d be better off calling it Disney Comics. At least people know what Disney is. I mean, they have Wolverine and Spider-Man, and they don’t know what to do with them. That’s like being a giant mouse with yellow shoes and you can’t walk. How come, Chief Quesada?

> “Marvel”

Disney’s 80-dime plague?

> T: “A Walk Through Hell”

Developing, and how come #5 is unreviewed?

> G: “Come Into Me”

Developing, and how come #4 is unreviewed?

> T: “Dunkirk”

Developing, and how come a $5 reprint is $10?

> T: “Lip Hook”

Developing, and aren’t SelfMadeHero’s lies creepier?

> G: “Monster by Enki Bilal”

Developing, and how come last part is only in the omnibus?

> G: “Deep Roots”

Developing, and how come #4–5 are unreviewed?

—

<<< SLIDESHOW: DEAD CELEBS OF THE DAY!
>>> TOP TRAPS YOU JUST CAN’T TRUST!

* “No one’s working the farms.” “Can’t say I blame ’em. The shelling, the bombing… This must be the most violent liberation in the history of warfare. One more reason to get on and finish it, I suppose.”

* “I see the Tommies still don’t know how to build a decent Panzer. […] Those frontal plates must be at ninety degrees to the horizontal, […] haven’t they ever heard of sloping the armor?”

* “No, we haven’t broken out. But we are keeping up the pressure on Jerry. So he’s burning up his resources, which he can’t replace[.]” “What that seems to amount to is the enemy using us for target practice…”

* “Met a bloke at the depot said he saw the shell that got him. Said you could see the corn bendin’ in front of it. Like a furrow runnin’ right up to his tank. Like there was somethin’ alive under there.”

* “The Cromwell’s one saving grace is that it’s apparently quite easy to bail out of – hardly the stuff of song and legend, I know.”

* “Half the time I tell myself that if I can just get my men through this alive, I’ll be able to look myself in the eye when it’s all over. That’s about the best I can hope for. But the other half […]”

* “[Our irregular Cromwell is] the fastest tank on the battlefield, sir. That’s a very nice edge to have.” “So what? The armor won’t stop anything more than twenty millimeter[!]” “The Jerry gunners, sir. They won’t know. [T]hey won’t be ready for us at all.”

Abducted by aliens who recorded human history… and want to have his baby! (“Gray”, 21 pages, 6-panel grid.) People from 2050 find a TV displaying live transmissions from a 1980s kook trying to connect. (“Hello”, 6 pages, 24-panel grid.) Two friends try a brain app turning life into a cartoon. (“Cartoonify”, 9 pages, 15-panel grid.)

A woman tries to find out who hacks into her brain to viciously voiceover her life. (“The Scatman”, 12 pages, 15-panel grid.) An ominous visitor can’t spell out his warnings. (“Mr. Yellow”, 2 pages, 70-panel grid.) A 21st-century cryogenized man is part of a 23rd-century team exploring an inhabited planet. (“Old & New Worlds”, 66 pages evoking McCay and McGuire, 8-panel grid.)

(Sans mousetrap, the price would be right for this 9×12” baby. Plutarch not included, Greg.)

* Teen husband: Maybe you’d prefer someone older and manly…
* Adult wife: You’re growing up, so what’s the problem? You know, my father kept me until my grandfather interceded. I was an old maid sure to be married to an old man. When I saw you, I felt so lucky!

19th-century romance and adventure in the steppes of Central Asia… Beautiful, moving, library-overpriced, and with enough recap to be essentially standalone (first half above is a tale of the couple from Vols. 1–2 & 6, second half below is a sequel to Vol. 3). /Borodin

* Hunter: Have you seen a man with scars on his face? He killed my friend sixteen years ago.
* Guide: We met him. He wanted bread. He’ll probably seek the next caravan.
* Hunter: Good advice, thanks.
* Ethnologist: …
* Guide: Neither can go home until this is settled. It’s in their interest that they meet.

“It’s impressive to me how foreign this setting is, with its tribes and nomads and codes of hospitality and rules of male-female behavior, and yet how universal Kaoru Mori makes the people and their emotions. […] A Bride’s Story only comes out every year or so, but each volume is worth sinking into.” — Johanna, Comics Worth Reading (+)

— YOTSUBA standalone VOL. 14 (p. 425, ALLEGEDLY $13)

Kiyohiko Azuma’s two-yearly collection is always cause for joy!

—

<<< TOP TRAPS YOU JUST CAN’T TRUST!
>>> THESE BOOKSTORE BEAUTS ARE BARELY LEGAL!

The BEAST TETRALOGY isn’t Bad Bilal. Some panels are painted, most are closer to colored charcoals and a storyboard feel. Overpriced for libraries (where Bilal fans dwell since Nikopol 2), especially as it’s a 3-hour read.

First, thanks again Greg and Travis (and Simon!) for another Flippin’!

I really want to get that Savage Sword of Conan omnibus, but does anyone know how many they’ll make? There were like 235 issues. I’m afraid if I buy one I’ll have to buy them all! First world problems, right?!

Here’s a few notable things I’m going to try:
> Cyko Ko #3 (Alterna) – It’s the last in the mini-series, and I only have #1 so far, but it was a blast! Plus it’s cheap!
> Don Rosa’s $crooge & Donald Duck box set vol. 9 & 10 – I love the Barks and Rosa duck hardcovers. Fun, fun, fun comics!
> Dragonball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha – This sounds zany enough to be fantastic!
> Go-Bots #1 – Scioli’s Transformers/GI Joe was absolutely nuts, but it was nostalgiawesome!
> Infinity 8 #7 (Magnetic Press) – The start of the 3rd arc! I almost gave up after the 1st arc, which was OK, but the 2nd arc started off so great I’ll continue pre-ordering.
> Retrograde Orbit – I browsed some preview pages and I think this might be really good. I don’t know anything about Kristyna Baczynski, but I will after I read this!
> Street Angel vs. Ninjatech – Maruca and Rugg’s Street Angel is such a blast! If you’ve never read one I highly recommend Street Angel Gang.
> Sukeban Turbo #1 – Yes, yes, yes. This will be my first Victor Santos. I didn’t read Violent Love – I probably should, shouldn’t I?
> Valerian Complete Collection vol. 7 – The last one in the series; these comics are outstanding!
> The Warning #1 – Technology? Mystery? Fight aliens? That’s all I needed to know about it!

I have no idea how many Savage Sword Omnibi they have planned. I assume it will depend on sales of the previous ones. I don’t worry about it too much, because the creative teams changed so much that I imagine if I skip one it won’t matter too much. But I get the completist urge! 🙂

I really liked the first arc of Infinity 7, so I’m glad that the second sounds good too. It’s a neat book.

Violent Love is pretty good, but Santos really became a force with his Polar books, of which there are three. The stories are perfectly fine and entertaining, but the art is amazing. Some Steranko-level stuff in them, which is impressive. If you’re looking for Santos, pick that up. He’s done some other good stuff, but that’s really excellent.

Only seven volumes of Valerian? Dang, now I’ll have to get them. I was waiting for the new collections to be complete, and I thought it was longer than that (I know these are big chunks of comics, but still). Thanks for the information!